Characteristics of surface water quality and stable isotopes in Bamen Bay watershed, Hainan Province, China

PLoS One. 2021 Jan 22;16(1):e0245438. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0245438. eCollection 2021.

Abstract

Bamen Bay is located at the intersection of the Wenjiao River and Wenchang River in Hainan Province (China), where mangroves have been facing a threat of water quality deterioration. Therefore, it is imperative to study the characteristics of the surface water quality on a watershed scale. Water samples were collected three times from 36 monitoring sites from 2015 to 2016. It was found that nitrate was the main inorganic nitrogen form and all the surface water types were alkaline. Meanwhile, aquaculture water had high content of nitrogen, total phosphorus, chlorophyll a (Chl.a), total organic carbon (TOC), and chemical oxygen demand (COD). Significant spatial and temporal variations were found for most parameters. However, stable isotopes of δD and δ18O indicated that river water mainly originated from atmospheric precipitation and experienced strong evaporation. The water chemistry and isotopes of the Bamen Bay, mangroves, and aquaculture water were initially affected by the mixing of fresh water and seawater, followed by evaporation. The river and reservoir water chemistry were mainly controlled by water-rock interactions and cation exchange as deduced from the ionic relationships and Gibbs plots. These interactions involved the dissolution of calcite-, bicarbonate-, carbonate-, and calcium-containing minerals. Oxidized environments (river, reservoir, and Bamen Bay) were conducive for nitrification, while anaerobic conditions (mangrove and aquaculture water) were beneficial to the reduced nitrogen forms.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Aquaculture
  • Bays
  • Biological Oxygen Demand Analysis
  • Carbon / analysis
  • China
  • Chlorophyll A / analysis
  • Environmental Monitoring*
  • Fresh Water / analysis*
  • Phosphorus / analysis
  • Seawater / analysis*
  • Water Movements
  • Water Pollutants, Chemical / analysis
  • Water Quality*

Substances

  • Water Pollutants, Chemical
  • Phosphorus
  • Carbon
  • Chlorophyll A

Associated data

  • Dryad/10.5061/dryad.05qfttf24

Grants and funding

This research was financially supported by National Forestry Industry Research Special Funds for Public Welfare Projects (No. 201504419) and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NO. 41601037). Julan Guo hosts the first project and Yilei Yu hosts the second one. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.